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Fat has had a lot of bad press and for many people, just a mention of the word can evoke misery. You can try to lose it, try to hide it, try to avoid it, but your body still needs it! Did you know that fat helps to insulate our nerve cells, keeps us warm, balances our hormones, keeps skin and arteries supple, lubricates joints and is a component in every cell?

The key issue here is recognizing which type of fat your body needs, how much your body requires and which type is your enemy. Armed with the right information, you can focus on getting more of the good fats and less of the bad fats into your daily diet.

There are two types of fat to be aware of. Saturated fats - let’s call them “the enemy” and unsaturated fats - “the good guys”! It is easy to tell the difference because saturated fats are hard at room temperature. Saturated fats are not essential to your health. They come from animals and are found in meat, eggs and cheese. They are harder to digest and full of cholesterol.

Unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature and have been divided into two groups. Monounsaturated fats such as olive oil, and polyunsaturated fats such as sunflower oil.
Polyunsaturated fats are split into Omega 3 fatty acids and Omega 6 fatty acids. Monounsaturated fat (Omega 9) although not essential, is not harmful in moderation - a good quality (extra virgin first cold pressed) olive oil is a healthier alternative to the usual vegetable oil.
Good sources of Omega 6: safflower oil, sunflower oil, evening primrose oil, walnut oil, pumpkin oil, sesame oil.
Good sources of Omega 3 are mackerel, herring, salmon, pilchards, sardines, tuna and flax seed oil.
Here are some important facts about fat in our diet.

1. Fat is the ‘energy reserve’ of animals, plants and humans.

2. The ideal body-fat ratio should be approximately 19-26% of a woman’s body weight, and 12-18% of a man’s body weight.

3. There are two different types of body fat - brown and yellow. Brown fat is situated inside the body and is ‘active’, containing mitochondria that produce heat (thermogenesis) and as a result burn energy. Yellow fat is found nearer the surface, is less active and more likely to accumulate. Women tend to have a higher ratio of yellow fat than men.

4. Women need higher levels of fat because it is essential for reproduction and so the body stores it ‘just in case’.

5. An average healthy intake of good fats in the diet should be approximately 30-40 grams a day. The fat content of diets in affluent populations can be nearly four times this amount!

6. Most foods containing fat combine saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat in varying quantities. For instance, butter’s fat content is almost 100%, of which 60% is saturated, 30% monounsaturated and 10% polyunsaturated, compared with sunflower seeds’ fat content of 73%, of which just 12% is saturated and 21% monounsaturated and 67% is polyunsaturated.

7. Heat, light and oxygen destroy essential fatty acids, which is why it is best to keep oils in dark containers.

8. Essential fats must come from the diet because your body cannot produce them. The essential healthy fats are Omega 3 and Omega 6 (known as essential fatty acids).

9. Weight for weight, fat provides more than twice the amount of usable energy than carbohydrates or protein (you’ll find 9 calories in every gram of fat).

10. Fat contributes to the palatability, texture and the smell of many foods, it also slows down the process of digestion providing an extended period of satiation after a meal.

When you know the good from the bad, fat is fabulous!

(c) Copyright Kim Beardsmore

Kim Beardsmore is a weight loss consultant whose business operates across 60 countries. Tons of recipes, articles, resources, free newsletter and more to help you lose weight and keep it off forever. Estimate your healthy body weight or receive a free weight loss consultation at http://www.weight-loss-health.com.au

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I read a lot about the
topics of health and especially diets. I have been experimenting with
diets since 1990 and keep journals about my
observations. Over time I tried several very different diets - ranging
from the politically correct ones to highly controversial, along with diets
of my own design. My general observation is that a healthy diet plays an essential
role in the overall scheme of well being.

Why eat healthy?

Eating the natural foods humans are well adapted at utilizing, enhances
ones ability to cope with the reality of every day life. This in essence
improves the probability of living a longer, healthier life. Quality food consumption becomes
especially important in the present world of high stress and pollution -
making a healthy diet an essential aspect of modern self health care.
(Although food is not the only aspect contributing to health or disease, it
is significant enough to consider it’s effects seriously.)

I think anybody who seriously tried living healthier through a better diet,
proper physical activity, adequate rest, and by addressing mental and
spiritual factors have experienced a vast range of natural health benefits.
Common benefits are overall better health and a sense of well being, better sleep,
improved physical endurance and strength, sharper mental abilities and lower
sleep requirements. Further more, no or little time and money and energy is
spend on doctors, hospitals and health insurance bills.

What is a healthy diet?

Since this article deals with healthy eating, a question remains
to be answered: what constitutes a healthy diet? Unfortunately, there are
more opinions about this than there are health experts. To further complicate
the matter, dietary concepts change over time, leaving most people confused and uncertain
about what or whom to trust. One solution to this problem is to become sufficiently
knowledgeable about the relevant subjects and rely on common sense to draw basic
conclusions. Along with personal experimentation, such an approach will
enable one to establish healthy eating habits. This takes time and energy, but considering
the long lasting benefits a healthy diet can provide, the effort is more then well worth it.

In order to determine the minimal basic requirements of a healthy diet, I
concluded that it is safe to start with the following two objectives:

1. examine human diet over time - the foods humans consumed since the arrival of our species.
2. examine diets of ethnical groups known for their good health.

Looking at the type of diets humans lived on through out pre-history, provides good
insights into the kind of foods human body should be well adapted at utilizing and dealing with.
Further, the diets of certain ethnical groups that are well known for good health -
the people of Okinawa(Japan), traditional cultures in the Mediterranean region and many hunter-gatherer
societies - suggest certain health promoting dietary habits. Upon closer examination, two main
denominators emerged:

• diets are based on natural, whole or minimally processed foods in accordance to heritage.
• diets are lower in calories compared to a typical western diet.

In the context of present time, one can therefore make two general assumptions in regard to
the question of what constitutes a healthy diet: 1) generally, the less a food is processed the better.
2) eat less - eat what is adequate, do not over eat.

Generally, the less a food is processed the better

The reason for this is simple. For 99.9% of human existence, our species
lived on foods that were either raw or minimally processed. The technology
needed to increase food processing did not exist until very recently.
It is therefore reasonable to assume that our bodies are best adapted at
utilizing and dealing with the raw or minimally processed foods which sustained
us for hundreds of thousands of years: fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts and seeds.

Often, the more recent the food is, the more likely it is to be less beneficial
or even directly harmful - possibly due to lack of full adaptation to such foods.
For example, it is estimated that food cooking started about
500 000 - 250 000 years ago (depending on the source, the range may vary). During
this time frame, it is likely that human species have at least adapted in some way to cooked
animal and vegetable foods. On the other hand, the beginnings of grain consumption
are much more recent. Evidence of earliest known, systematical collecting of grains
for food goes back to about 23 000 years ago - giving less time for
adaptation to grain based foods.

Now, let’s fast forward to recent times and consider all the new, human invented,
highly processed foods so common today: fast foods, pizza, sweets, chips, convenience
foods, canned foods, etc. along with the dramatic rise in heart attacks, high blood pressure,
stroke, cancers, diabetes, kidney problems (and all the complications that arose from these
conditions) during the past 100 years or so.

Considering the declining health of most western
nations as opposed to good health of the ethnical groups described above, it seems reasonable
that the most recent food inventions are directly harmful to human health.
Further, it has been repeatedly observed that as ethnical groups around the
world adopt the modern western diet, their health dramatically declines and they develop
the same diseases that are so common to westerners. Not to mention the fact that
the above mentioned diseases were far less common among westerners
themselves barely 100 years ago.

The more a food is processed - through excessive cooking, pasteurization,
homogenization, high heat, mechanical processing, etc, - the less natural and nutritious it becomes to a point
of becoming a harmful burden to the body, rather then a useful and health promoting food. Some
industrial processing practices deprive food of their nutrients to such a high degree that the food
has to be “enriched” by artificially adding some nutrients back into the food. This is especially
true of flours where vitamins are added back in after the processing is done.

A good diet is based on natural, whole or minimally processed foods. A large portion
of it should consist of foods that can be eaten raw, such as fruits and vegetables.
Fermented or cultured, unpasteurized foods such as kefir, yogurt, cheeses, miso, sauerkraut and pickles
are considered highly beneficial. Cooking should be minimal and only applied to foods that
must be cooked in order to be edible. Ancestral heritage also plays an important role
as certain foods may need to be excluded or emphasized.

Eat less - eat what is adequate, do not over eat

During the past several decades, food in the western and westernized nations became
increasingly affordable and more readily available then ever before in
human history. This very fact combined with the enjoyment food consumption brings,
results in all too frequent over eating. Which again leads to the above mentioned health
problems.

In the past, as in the traditional way of living among the ethnical groups mentioned
earlier, food consumption has always been significantly lower. Food quality, on the other
hand, has always been higher. Resulting in a lower food intake, but of nutrient dense foods.

Finally, as an interesting note, it has been repeatedly confirmed through laboratory experiments on animals,
including monkeys, that cutting down calories considerably lowers their susceptibility
to diseases and prolongs their life up to 50%. It is believed by many,
that life long caloric restriction can have similar effects on humans.

Health promoting eating habits

Over time, through reading and experimenting, I gradually arrived at several
basic health promoting habits that in my experience are the most important:

Avoid or minimize:

• Avoid all junk, sweets, canned and convenience foods - including
  all foods with added sugar: most commercial yogurts, kefirs and juices, fruit and soft drinks.
• Avoid all refined or overly heated fats: margarine, any oil that is not cold
  pressed, leftover fat from cooking, all foods that contain hydrogenated or
  partially hydrogenated fats and trans fatty acids (read the labels). Such
  fats are considered to be among the most health damaging foods.
• Avoid consumption of fish and water animals unless certain they came from unpolluted waters.
  Especially predators should be avoided as the toxins accumulate in them in
  far greater quantities.
• Keep the intake of foods high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) low - mainly
  nuts and seeds and any products made from them (mostly oils). PUFAs are unstable,
  they oxidize readily resulting in harmful free radicals. High PUFA intake have
  been repeatedly linked with cancer, heart and inflammatory diseases.
• Do not cook meat or fat at high temperatures while exposed to air. Such practice
  will avoid fat and cholesterol oxidation - believed to be responsible for build up
  of arterial plaque and injury to arterial cells. Grilling and frying is especially
  harmful. Boiling is probably the safest way of cooking meat.
• Minimize or eliminate consumption of foods frequently contaminated with mycotoxins: alcoholic beverages,
  wheat, rye, barley, corn and peanuts. Mycotoxins are poisonous substances produced
  by certain molds and fungi which cause a wide range of health problems including cancer,
  asthma, multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

Emphasize and do:

• The more natural and less processed the food the better. Emphasize whole, fresh foods.
  Replace white rice with brown rice; white bread with whole grain bread; sugar with
  small amounts of raw honey or dry fruit; pasta with millet or whole grain pasta; canned
  foods with fresh; candy and other sweets with dry or sweet fruit;
  etc. Organic foods are best as they are higher in nutrients and do not contain
  harmful pesticides, hormones or antibiotics found in conventional foods.
  Always choose fresh over frozen, dried or canned foods. Fresh foods taste better,
  have more nutrients in them, have no added salt, sugar or unhealthy additives.
• Enjoy simple meals. Generally, the
  simpler the food preparation the more nutrients are preserved and the easier it is to
  digest. Simple meals are easy and quick to prepare and use fewer
  resources like electricity and water - thus are more environmentally friendly and less costly.
• Only cook foods that need to be cooked in order to be edible (beans, grains and some vegetables).
  Foods that are edible in a raw state (fruits, most vegetables, sprouts, nuts and seeds)
  should be consumed on a daily basis and preferably with every meal. Raw foods are higher in nutrients,
  which to some degree get lost during cooking, and are easier to digest. At least 50% of
  the diet, by volume, should consist of raw foods.
• Steam vegetables that need to be cooked - steaming preserves more nutrients which
  when boiled leech into the water. Do not overcook. Cooked vegetables should be crunchy
  when you eat them, not soft.
• Chew food well (simply chew it longer) and eat at a comfortable pace. This improves
  digestion which already starts in the mouth while saliva gets mixed with the food.

• Variety in diet is very important - to prevent allergies, malnutrition and to lower
  exposure to natural and man-made toxins found in many natural foods.

• Always properly wash fruits and vegetables before consumption. This lowers the
  exposure to agricultural chemicals (used to cultivate conventional plants) and harmful microorganisms.
  Peel the skin if washing is not sufficient.

• Nuts and seeds should be soaked before consumption - to lower or eliminate natural
  anti nutrients like enzyme inhibitors. Soaking makes them much easier to digest.
  Do not eat more then a few handfuls a week as they are high in PUFAs and difficult
  to digest.
• Grains (except amaranth, millet and rice) and beans must be soaked before
  consumption. This lowers or eliminates anti nutrients like phytic acid which inhibits
  mineral absorption that can lead to mineral deficiency.
• Fruits are best eaten alone as a snack between meals. To improve digestion only eat
  one type of fruit at a time.
• Regularly consume unpasteurized fermented/cultured foods like sauerkraut, miso,
  pickles, kefir, yogurt, etc. These are pre-digested foods that are high in
  probiotics (friendly bacteria) and enzymes which provide numerous health benefits.
  Start with what your ancestors consumed and later experiment with other foods
  as well.
• Regularly consume enzyme rich foods: sprouts, raw honey, grapes, figs, avocados,
  bananas, papayas, pineapple, kiwi, mango and fermented/cultured
  foods (see above). Enzymes obtained from raw foods ease the digestion by reducing
  the body’s need to produce digestive enzymes.
• Consider the diet your ancestors ate for thousands of years - you will most likely
  do very well on such a diet due to the long period of adaptation to it.
  For example, the traditional Chinese diet is high in carbohydrates and low in fat and protein;
  Europeans, on the other hand, have been eating less carbs and more protein and fat;
  North American Indians did not eat grains.
• Drink adequate amounts of liquid through out the day. Water is best. Under normal conditions,
  most people need 2-3 liters of liquid/day.
• Unless very hungry, do not eat for 3-4 hours before bedtime. That way the nightly fast
  can be prolonged considerably. This gives the body more/adequate time and energy to perform the
  countless nightly tasks that are so essential to good health. (Rather then digesting the
  just eaten meal)
• Eat only when hungry and do not overeat regardless of food. I found this to be among the
  most important of all health promoting habits.

Good sources of protein:

• any meat that comes from organic, free range animals that are fed their natural diet (hard to find)
• when not organic: lean poultry meat (high fat cuts are high in polyunsaturated fatty acids which oxidize readily during cooking and in the body; toxins accumulate in the fat)
• beans
• fresh, soaked or sprouted nuts and seeds
• raw fermented milk products: sour milk, kefir, cheeses, etc (hard to find)
• wild game
• eggs

Most commercial meats including pork and beef, unless organic and not fed corn/grains/beans,
contain antibiotics, hormones and too many polyunsaturated fats - thus should be avoided.

Good sources of carbohydrates:

• vegetables
• fruits
• whole or minimally processed fresh and mold free grains: rice, oat, amaranth, millet, barley, wheat, etc.
• beans
• potatoes

Good sources of fats:

• avocados
• butter
• fresh, soaked or sprouted nuts and seeds (mostly source of omega 6)
• coconuts or coconut oil
• full fat raw milk products (cheese, milk, cream, etc) from pasture fed cattle
• olives or first cold pressed (extra virgin) olive oil

Shopping

I always try to find organic foods to avoid harmful substances like hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, etc.
The most contaminated fruits are: raisins, cherries, peaches, strawberries, mexican
(winter) cantaloupe, apples, apricots, Chilean (winter) grapes. And the most
contaminated vegetables are: spinach, celery, green beans, bell peppers, cucumbers,
cultivated button mushrooms, potatoes and wheat. Lean poultry is probably the safest meat
to eat if not organic.

Meal examples

What follows are weekly meals that closely resemble my diet at the time of this
writing. When planning meals, the key idea is to have variety in diet and to rely on
food combinations that agree with ones digestion.

TBS = table spoon
tsp = tea spoon
/ = or

• any fruit eaten alone
• 0.5L sour milk, 300g potatoes, fennel
• 0.5L kefir, 50-100g oatmeal, 25g raisins
• 0.5L plain yogurt, 300g grapes/2-3 bananas
• 50-100g oatmeal, 1-2TBS honey, cinammon
• Tags: carbohydrates, dairy, diet, fat, food, health, meals, natural, paleolithic, protein, raw, sugarcarbohydrates, dairy, diet, fat, food, health, meals, natural, paleolithic, protein, raw, sugar

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Vitamins supplements are so common amonge us. We can easily buy them at supermarkets or our local drugs store. But what are vitamins? and why should we take them? Nobel Laureate Fritz Lipmann once commented, “Doctors like to prescribe vitamins and millions of people take them, but it requires a good deal of biochemical sophistication to understand why they are needed and how the organism uses them.”

Vitamins are essential micronutrients that the body cannot supply in sufficient quantities. They therefore must be obtained from the environment (diet or supplements). For simplification, vitamins are classified in two groups, according to whether they are water-soluble or fat-soluble. The water-soluble vitamins include vitamin C and the B-complex vitamins; these are considered for the most part relatively non-toxic. The fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E, K, tend to accumulate in tissues and can be quite toxic at high doses.

What are Enzymes?
Enzymes are the work horses of the body in that they function to facilitate biochemical reactions necessary for activities such as muscle contraction, wound healing, digestion of food, metabolism of carbohydrate, fat and protein, and virtually all the numerous chemical reactions necessary for growth and vitality. The body manufactures approximately 4,000 different enzymes, and 22% of them require a helper molecule, a coenzyme, to carry out their activity. The relatively tiny B vitamin fits snugly into a specific site on the enzyme, much like a ball in a catcher’s mitt. This interaction between enzyme and vitamin must be a near perfect fit for the enzyme to be active. Once this reaction is complete, the enzyme, now known as a holoenzyme, can perform work for the cell.

Why should we supplement with vitamins?
Many people, especially as we age, require more nutrients than the diet supplies. Unfortunately, few of us eat the recommended 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables/day. Scientific evidence continues to accumulate to strengthen the view that vitamin deficiencies are more common than previously thought. It has been estimated that at least 50 human genetic diseases are caused by specific errors in the DNA blueprint, and that these diseases can be corrected or attenuated by taking vitamins several-fold in excess of the recommended daily intake. Other disorders that may be related to genetic factors and vitamin deficiencies include fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, migraine, rage, depression, bipolar, and other more minor disorders.

How can megadosing with a particular vitamin make up for some genetic errors?
Vitamin must fit tightly in the pocket of the enzyme for full activity. If an enzyme is produced from a gene containing a genetic error (especially in the formation of the vitamin pocket), the error will most likely affect the ability of the enzyme to bind with the vitamin. This will result in reduced enzyme activity, because the vitamin will not be properly fitted to the enzyme. However, enzymologists working in the laboratory have demonstrated a method to force the vitamin into a pocket of an enzyme with low binding affinity. The technique involves raising the concentration of the vitamin, thereby increasing the chance of a productive interaction between the vitamin and its binding site (pocket) on the enzyme. This is precisely what is believed to occur in some of the 50 or so known genetic diseases that are corrected or improved by ingestion of megadoses of vitamins. The high doses essentially force the imperfect pocket to pop into the vitamin-binding conformation, thereby creating the active holoenzyme.
Other genetic errors can also interfere with the transport of the vitamin into the cell. For example, a protein known as intrinsic factor is produced by the stomach and functions as a vehicle to carry vitamin B-12 from the intestine into the plasma. A defect in this factor will also produce a B-12 deficiency, which can be corrected by B-12 injections or high doses of sublingual B-12, both of which by-pass the intrinsic factor block. Since many vitamins have carrier proteins, this type of error is potentially more common than presently realized. Furthermore, stomach acidity is important in vitamin absorption and it is known that some individuals (more common in the elderly) have low vitamin absorption due to abnormal stomach acidity, which again may be corrected by high-dose vitamin therapy.

Vitamins may also serve a role in protecting enzymes from free radical attack. Enzymes are longer-lived when they are in the company of substances they normally work with or bind to, such as the vitamins. The enzyme-bound vitamin affords a shield from free radical attack, as well as promoting a more compact, stable enzyme structure.

How much should one take?
One should avoid taking vitamins in excess of the safe upper limit (UL), unless prescribed by a qualified physician. This safe UL can be several hundred times the recommended daily required intake, yet clearly within the range of the vitamins and minerals present in one multiple vitamin plus a super-B complex/day. A complete list of vitamin-mineral UL can be obtained from the US government National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements.

The U.S. Government’s dietary guideline of 5 to 7 fruits and vegetables per day is widely cited, but often not well understood. Will 5 fruits and no vegetables meet the guideline? What about all veggies and no fruit? Could it be that they mean 5 to 7 fruits AND 5 to 7 vegetables?

Detailed examination of the guidelines reveals that the recommendation is to consume at least 2 servings of fruits and 3 servings of vegetables per day. The rationale is that different fruits and vegetables provide different nutrients. For further information, and details on what constitutes a serving, go to Dietary Guidelines: Build a Healthy Base at www.health.gov.

Although the need for vitamins and minerals is widely recognized, most people don’t bother to take supplements that would ensure adequate vitamin intake. A national survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention produced data indicating that 60% of the U.S. population had not taken at least 1 vitamin or mineral in the past month.

Vitamin C is the most commonly consumed vitamin, followed by several B vitamins. Vitamin E is 7th, A is 8th and D is 9th on the list of the top ten most common ingredients. Folic acid, well known for its importance during pregnancy, is 10th.

Vitamin consumption correlates with age, education, gender and geography. The groups with the highest vitamin supplementation are those who are non-Hispanic whites, women, 50 and over, have 13+ years of education, and live in the West.

For most of us, vitamins are synonymous with good health. Yet most Americans do not take vitamins. Changing diet affects the need for vitamins, as does age, since older bodies don’t absorb vitamins as well as younger ones.

Ito Nakamura is a Internet Health Enterpreneur who specialise in marketing health supplements, execise equipemnst & beauty products. http://www.detoxprofessor.com

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